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YES PARENTS, SUMMER READING DOES HELP IMPROVE TEST SCORES AND COMPREHENSION!

Get Your Students to Read During the Summer Taken from” Inservice, The ASCD Community Blog,” May 01, 2009

In a study done by James Kim and Thomas White of Harvard University conducted an experiment to see whether summer reading helps improve test scores. Students who received support from teachers and parents for summer reading of books assigned to match their reading level and interests improved their reading abilities. Scores also improved on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.

A group of children were divided into four groups. The control group received no additional instruction or materials. Group 2 received books matched to their reading levels and interests. Parents were only told to encourage their children to read during the summer, without any special reading instruction. Group 3 received books matched to their level and interests. Teachers gave directed oral reading instruction prior to the end of the year. Children read aloud to their parents during the summer and filled out a postcard describing their understanding of the books.

Group 4 received the same instructions as group 3. In addition, these students were also asked what strategies they used to help comprehend the books, i.e. re-reading, predicting, and summarizing. Group 4 also filled out a postcard describing their understanding.

Groups 3 and 4 gained the most months of additional learning. The researchers concluded that the more support children receive from parents and teachers for summer reading, the more improvement in reading comprehension and test scores will occur.